MTN roaming overseas - How?!

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bishibosh

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I am on an MTN contract and I'm going to be traveling overseas in a week or so. Last year I tried to activate roaming and was given some steps. I followed them, arrived on the other side, and I had no connection at all.

Today, I phone MTN call centre and ask what the steps are, and get told the exact same steps that didn't work last time. Which led to this bizarre exchange:
Says I, "is there any way to make sure that it's activated successfully?"
"You'll know when you arrive on the other side."
"And if it doesn't work, what do I do then?"
"There's nothing you can do once you leave the country."
WTF!? :mad:

Can someone please shed some light on this? Is there a reliable way to activate roaming on an MTN number?

Just in case, the steps I got told were:
A week before you leave, activate the roaming feature on your account.
24 hours before you leave, dial *135# and choose option 1, then choose the roaming option.
Click to expand...
 
HI, I use the *135* option and then it should say which roaming option you have enabled. This worked for me as recently as 1 week ago when I travelled. Maybe go into a store, sometimes if it is your first time roaming they ask for a crazy deposit amount. how long have you had your contract?
 
bishibosh said:
I am on an MTN contract and I'm going to be traveling overseas in a week or so. Last year I tried to activate roaming and was given some steps. I followed them, arrived on the other side, and I had no connection at all.

Today, I phone MTN call centre and ask what the steps are, and get told the exact same steps that didn't work last time. Which led to this bizarre exchange:
Says I, "is there any way to make sure that it's activated successfully?"
"You'll know when you arrive on the other side."
"And if it doesn't work, what do I do then?"
"There's nothing you can do once you leave the country."
WTF!? :mad:

Can someone please shed some light on this? Is there a reliable way to activate roaming on an MTN number?

Just in case, the steps I got told were:
Click to expand...
never had an issue last time i traveled - so as long as you confirm its activated should be OK - pf course depends if they have roaming agreements wherever you are going.

Honestly just easier and cheaper to get a local sim and plug it in your phone and use your whatsapp or telegram to communicate.
Roaming charges are insane!
 
Personally I would not trust MTN with roaming costs.

whenever I travel I get a sim card in that country and use that one as it works out cheaper. I am lucky though as I have a dual sim phone and so I can leave my MTN sim in the phone to receive messages to that number using the local sim data.
 
OK cool, seems like I probably did something wrong the last time then. It's comforting to know that some of you have gotten the *135# thing to work - will give that another go this time. And yeah, will definitely pick up a SIM card when I arrive - the roaming will hopefully just be a safety net and for receiving SMSs.

Thanks!
 
Well, going via *135# these are the screens I went through, and it seems to be "enabled" according to the last pic. I was thinking back and I might have been on the afrihost APN last time I tried this, which might have been why it didn't work for me. This time I'm on MTN-DATA APN, so hopefully it all works.

Screenshot_20190723-174221.jpg
Screenshot_20190723-174236.jpg
Screenshot_20190723-174245.jpg
 
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